A US$1.65 billion carbon capture project in the US in under threat from a lawsuit launched by one of America’s oldest environmental groups.

Illinois’s FutureGen project – the first large-scale carbon capture facility to be built in the United States, is facing a lawsuit from environmental group the Sierra Club just a week after the start of construction.

While ostensibly a natural ally to such an ambitious carbon capture project, the Sierra Club claims that revival of the Meredosia plant, which was shut in 2011 due to lack of profitability, will release thousands of tons of air pollutants each year that are harmful to both the environment and health of human residents.

Reliable electricity remains critically important to U.S. homes and businesses and is itself reliant upon the availability of sufficient generating capacity. DOE, EPA, and FERC have taken initial steps to implement our recommendation to establish a joint process to monitor industry’s progress in responding to the four EPA regulations and other factors. However, stakeholders, including a FERC Commissioner, continue to express concerns about reliability and electricity prices. Furthermore, proposed regulations focused on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide from the electricity sector, when finalized, may pose additional challenges for coal-fueled generating units.

A new MIT study implicitly confirms the obvious: EPA’s “carbon pollution rule” — the agency’s proposed carbon dioxide (CO2) emission standards for new fossil-fuel power plants — is a fuel-switching mandate. Whether through miscalulation or design, the rule does not promote investment in new coal generation with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Rather, the rule effectively bans investment in new coal power plants.